All companies and residents in Ho Chi Minh City have been ordered to contribute to a new fund to prevent natural disasters and ease their impacts.

The annual fee for businesses, including foreign invested companies, is equivalent to 0.02 percent of their financial capital, according to the government.

Corporate contributions must not be lower than VND500,000 (US$22.28) and higher than VND100 million ($4,400) a year.

The city's government said a total of 140,545 businesses will have to wire their payments to the fund's bank account by December 15. It is expecting to collect more than VND292.32 billion ($13.02 million) from these businesses.

Working residents in the city will have to pay VND15,000, about 66 cents, a person.

Tran Nhan Nghia, a spokesperson of the city's committee for floods and storms prevention, told news website Saigon Times Online on Tuesday that the collection is in line with a government's policy in October last year.

The funds, managed by each city and province, are meant for helping fund rescue and relief activities in the event of natural disasters.